Monday, November 23, 2015

NDTV's enormous crimes revealed in court

Today a journalist colleague was treating us to tea and samosa because her fiance got a job in NDTV. I had the treat alright, but couldn't help thinking what a massive fraud the whole media industry has become (or has always been).

I stole a couple a glances at her face to detect any sign betraying some understanding of the revelations about NDTV.

There were none. Working for media is, of course, no more than a naukri, as perfunctory, brainless, and devoid of sensibility as any other.

A couple of hours later I was staring into this article, reproduced below, posted by Sucheta Dalal on her website Moneylife. The content of this article describing the frauds committed by NDTV and Prannoy Roy are known to me and many Indians for close to three years.

And still there is this pretense going on as if nothing wrong or criminal has ever happened. NDTV's self-righteous, smug, highly paid, and expensively dressed anchors appear every day in our living rooms moralising the public on corruption and intolerance.

They never tell us, "Today we are going to tell our viewers, in all conscience, our own corruption. How we at NDTV have been receiving hundreds of crores of rupees in ill gotten money which we have been laundering by setting up hundreds of sham companies and how we have also been suppressing our massive crimes by blackmailing or bribing the authorities and targeting those who dare to blow a whistle on them."

In the media industry, by the way, we have always been told to shun inquiring into other media companies. Even an innocuous business-related piece on another media company needs approval of the higher-ups in the editorial.

A mafia and its omerta (or code of silence) is what comes to mind. But that would apply to almost all areas of our life today.

CBI, ED questions genuineness of NDTV transactions through Mauritius

(Moneylife, Monday, 23 Nov. 2015)

This explosive information, contained in the filings with Supreme Court, perused by Moneylife, shows that the CBI has been investigating the NDTV group right since 2008, but the investigation seems to have been suppressed

In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said it has received information from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that NDTV Studios, an Indian resident company, received Rs387.62 crore from NDTV (Media) Mauritius Ltd in 2008 and a small portion of the funds was used for investment in six new subsidiaries in India until 2009.

In addition, in 2010, a major portion of the remaining funds, were invested in NDTV Multimedia (Mauritius) Ltd and further, in two existing wholly-owned subsidiaries in the Netherlands and UK through another subsidiary NDTV Worldwide Mauritius Ltd.

Thereafter, NDTV Studios and its six subsidiaries were merged with NDTV thereby creating doubts about the purpose of their setting up as well as the sources of funds for NDTV (Media) Mauritius and the need to set up various companies in Mauritius.

This explosive information, contained in the Court filings perused by Moneylife, shows that the CBI has been investigating the NDTV group right since 2008, but the investigation seems to have been suppressed. Meanwhile the group has sued an investor (Sanjay Dutt) as well as senior journalist (Madhu Kishwar) for defamation, since they asked questions about its finances.

Interestingly, the details about the CBI’s findings have come into the public domain by way of an affidavit filed by the ED in the Delhi High Court, in writ petition No984 of 2015 by Quantum Securities versus the Enforcement Directorate.

In its affidavit before the Court, the ED has further admitted that it had received a complaint from Income Tax (I-T) Commissioner RK Shrivastava in November 2011, as well as complaints from several others regarding NDTV finances. Yet, ED seems to have opened a formal investigation only in January 2013.

What is shocking is that I-T Commissioner Shrivastava has been subject to untold harassment and allegations as a result of his inquiry, which now appears to be confirmed by CBI, ED as well as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Yet, all these authorities have watched the harassment in silence, for several years now. They also remained silent when Ms Kishwar was sued by NDTV.

What is further astonishing is the silence of the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the two national stock exchanges, National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) whose job it is to ensure that information about these inquiries is available to public shareholders of NDTV Ltd.

Instead, barring the recent disclosure last Friday, the company has constantly denied or remained silent about various inquiries against it. It remains to be seen whether the Exchange authorities will continue to remain aloof as the first-line regulator.

The Enforcement Directorate’s submission to the Court further states: “many of the transactions relating to overseas investments/disinvestments are not reported to the RBI, which appears to be in contravention of the provisions of FEMA 1999.”

It goes on to make, what is clearly a sensational disclosure in the next paragraph. It says, “It is alleged that between 2006-09 NDTV has set up a number of subsidiaries registered outside India. One such company NDTV Networks Plc, London, has raised about £150 million in 2005-06.

This entire amount was invested in the subsidiary of NDTV Ltd in Mauritius, which further invested in subsidiaries registered in India. It is found that NDTV-related companies have received Rs648.81 crore from the period 2006 to 2011. It is noticed that M/s NDTV had set up step down subsidiaries at Mauritius, Netherlands, Sweden and UK.

A maze of step-down subsidiaries was created by way of closure, merger etc. It is alleged that about 294 companies with investors/shareholders having surnames like Chidambaram are running from the same premises as NDTV Network Plc London.

(Moneylife has already published an article , with the show cause notice issued by ED to NDTV.)

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About Me

Delhi-based journalist, having worked for a business magazine and a news agency.
Also worked as a researcher on local democracy and right to information for an NGO.
Having left my latest employment at a magazine on governance, where I contributed to ideation and wrote on public policy from the perspective of common citizens, in September 2010, I am currently engaged in freelancing.
At the NGO, I participated in a rare experiment in bringing face to face the people and their representatives and officials in the municipal bodies. At the business magazine, I wrote on finance, economy, business, education, healthcare, etc. At the news agency, my longest employer so far, I worked on the business and economy desk, but also did some news reporting and writing. I believe we Indians are going through a very slow but sure democratic awakening, which is due to greater flow of information. We must sustain this process of awakening and help each other out of ignorance. This ignorance enslaves us to the elite that currently handles the levers of power.